Olivia DrakePulitzer Prize winning writer Edward P. Jones will offer a reading and commentary April 17 as the 2009 Annie Sonnenblick guest lecturer. The annual lecture series brings distinguished writers to campus to discuss their work and participate in discussion with members of the Wesleyan community. Widely regarded as one of the nation's most distinguished contemporary fiction writers, Jones also is the recipient of the National Book Critics Circle Award, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and the Lannan Literary Award for his novel, The Known World, an epic story examining the complexities of slavery. The novel won the 2004 Pulitzer…
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Jelle Zelinga de Boer, the Harold T. Stearns Professor of Earth Science, emeritus, was cited in April 3 edition of The Hartford Courant. In an article titled " Remnants Of Old Mine In Middletown Date to Revolutionary Times," de Boer explains why an abandoned silver mine in Middletown, Conn. played a supporting role in the history of the country's industrial past. According to de Boer, the Middletown mine was originally opened to mine lead and was one of only two sites in New England that produced the metal for the Continental Army during the early stages of the Revolutionary War. The…
Corrina KerrLori Gruen, associate professor of Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program, associate professor of philosophy, was recently awarded the William A. Robinson Visionary Award for 2007-2008 for her work with captive chimpanzees at Chimp Haven in Keithville, La. Gruen has donated her time and provided her expertise in ethics to the organization for the past three years. The chimpanzees that arrive at Chimp Haven have spent time as either research subjects, performers or pets. Although the chimps are primarily from laboratories, when Gruen was last there she observed a recently rescued chimp named named Henry who had been kept as…
Through film, eco-activist, and reality television star Shalini Kantayya will speak about the global water crisis during Wesleyan's Earth Day Celebration April 15. "Water is life," says Kantayya, the event's keynote speaker. "We are facing a world water crisis. A world in which nations are at war for water and every drop is for sale." The event begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Center for the Arts Cinema. Kantayya will discuss her film, “a DROP of LIFE”, which will be viewed following her presentation. "a DROP of LIFE," is a futuristic sci-fi flick about the mounting global water crisis. It…
The 2009 Olla Podrida yearbook staff is making award-winning memories this year. The book, which focuses on the theme, "Expressions of Memory," is adhering to the Columbia Scholastic Press Association's award guidelines. Since 1935, the CSPA has sponsored annual contests to honor best practices in student writing, editing and yearbook publishing. "In the past, our yearbooks have been more like scrapbooks of students' senior year, but this year, we're more structured and we're creating a more professional book," says the yearbook's editor-in-chief Luz Burgos '09. "We're building a new foundation so yearbooks after this one will constantly improve." The Olla…
David PesciJanice Naegele, chair and professor of biology, professor of neuroscience and behavior, has received a $499,988.00 grant from the Connecticut Stem Cell Research Advisory Committee for her study titled: "Brain Grafts of GABAergic Neuron Precursors Derived from Human and Mouse ES Cells for Treating Temporal Lobe Epilepsy." The four-year grant will begin in July 2009, and will support research in laboratories in Wesleyan's biology department and neuroscience program. The research is directed toward generating inhibitory interneurons that we will transplant into the hippocampus of mice that have temporal lobe epilepsy. The goal of the project is to investigate the potential…
A piece in The New York Times discusses how applications for the Class of 2013 remained strong at the nation's most competitive colleges, despite the economy's recent economic recession. Mentioned in the article was Wesleyan which, unlike several liberal arts colleges, saw an increase in applications this year. In fact, Wesleyan's dramatic increase set a record: 10,065 applications, which is up 22% over last year's admissions cycle (which was also a record). The Times had previously written about Wesleyan's increase in applications during the November early decision application period, which was also up a record 40% over the previous year.…
The new Wesleyan University Press book, The Old Leather Man, was 20 years in the making, and as this story in The New York Times illustrates, its author's journey to the finished work was as intriguing as the book's subject.
Crude Independence, a documentary film directed and scored by Noah Hutton '09 and edited by Hutton and Alex Footman '09, has been featured at a number of flim festivals during the last few months, including the presitigious South By Southwest in March. Hutton is profiled in The Hartford Courant. A free screening of Crude Independence for the campus community was held at the CFA Cinema on Friday, April 3.